The skin is the largest human organ system. Loss of skin integrity due to injury or illness results in a substantial physiologic imbalance and ultimately in severe disability or death. The most common cause of significant skin loss is thermal injury, followed by trauma and chronic ulcerations. Over the past decades extraordinary advances have been made in the understanding of cellular and molecular processes of wound healing and the pathobiology of chronic wounds. This knowledge has led to woun…
This book describes an exciting new movement using regenerative medicine to treat patients with otolaryngological diseases. The emerging field of regenerative medicine uses tissue engineering, which combines medicine and engineering not only to treat the diseases themselves but also to enable recovery of the function of affected areas. As otolaryngology covers wide regions, including many diseases of the head and neck, the book is divided into sections, each corresponding to a different anatomi…